Oregon Route 99E Business

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Oregon Route 99E Business is a business route through Salem, Oregon for Oregon Route 99E, which bypasses downtown via Interstate 5. The majority of it is the 8.48-mile^[1] (13.65 km) Salem Parkway, or, more formally, the Salem Highway, which is Highway 72. That highway runs from Interstate 5 (Pacific Highway, which is Highway 1) in northern Salem south to downtown Salem, and then continues southeast to I-5 and Oregon Route 99E (Pacific Highway) and Oregon Route 22 (North Santiam Highway, which is Highway 162). The part southeast from downtown also carries Oregon Route 22. Oregon Route 99E Business continues east from the north end of Oregon Highway 72 on Chemawa Road, a locally-maintained road, to end at Oregon Route 99E (Pacific Highway East, which is Highway 1E(81)).^[2]

Much of the routing north of downtown was originally planned as Interstate 305, also called the Salem Freeway, which was planned as Highway 65, now delisted. After originally being conceived only as a four-mile spur of Interstate 5 into downtown Salem, the I-305 project was modified and expanded by about 2.34 miles to include a new bridge across the Willamette River to meet Oregon Route 22, providing increased access to Polk County.^[3] While local opposition cancelled the freeway, Salem Parkway was later built as an undivided expressway.

The original alignment of Oregon Route 99E through Salem came from the south off I-5 onto Commercial Street and left to the north on Portland Road to cross I-5. At some point, possibly when the Salem Parkway opened north of downtown, Oregon Route 99E was rerouted onto I-5 around Salem, and its old route south of downtown, along with the Salem Parkway and Chemawa Road north of downtown, became Oregon Route 99E Business. Later Oregon Route 99E Business was moved onto Route 22 southeast from downtown.

[edit] References

1. ^ Oregon Department of Transportation, Equations and Milepoint Range Information, accessed January 30, 2006
2. ^ Oregon Department of Transportation, Descriptions of US and OR Routes (PDF)
3. ^ Oregon Department of Transportation, Interstate 50th Anniversary: The Story of Oregon's Interstates, accessed April 14, 2006 (PDF)

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